PROSPECTS for TELEVISION

Korero (AEWS), Volume 3, Issue 10, 18 June 1945, Page 22

PROSPECTS for TELEVISION

A KORERO Report

Television has been peeping over the horizon for many years. By 1939 it had shown that it worked and had a great future ; it had also shown its inadequacies. Several years of war, with intensive research in the science of radio, have achieved technical advances which will bring, undoubtedly, clearer, larger, more reliable, more interesting pictures. The place of television in the post-war world, however, is impossible to predict ; as one writer says, “ it has been subject (at least in the United States) to enough highpowered prose and woozy prognostication to sink a lesser invention.” But it is both here to stay and ready to go. Many times it has been described as a certain billion-dollar industry. The many difficult problems of its re-establishment, in Great Britain and in the United States, are less often stressed. However great is its ultimate success, it is certain that widespread broadcast television will come neither quickly nor easily. But with the end of the war it will have the chance to start again, to plan its future soundly. That future is at present causing such a hullaballoo as has never been heard before in the radio industry. Implementing recommendations made (in 1935 by the first Television Committee) for the establishment and development of a public television service in Great Britain, the first such service in the world was begun at the 8.8.C.’s television station at Alexandra Palace in November, 1936. By 1939 (according to the report, published early this year, of the second Television Committee) the service had reached high standard : programme technique had made great progress, entertainment value was good. Television receivers in use by the public, however, were not many more than twenty thousand. Reasons for this were the high cost of sets (/20 to belief that the price would soon fall, fear of

obsolescence, and the impression the service was still in the experimental stage. Shortly before the outbreak of war, when the Alexandra Palace television station was shut down for military reasons, a demand for the extension of television service to the provinces had become insistent ; it was urged in Parliament, in the press, and by the radio industry. Plans for operation on a seminational scale, bringing television within reach of the majority of the densely populated areas of Great Britain, of course had to be shelved until after the war. Research since the War Increasing demands of war made organized research impossible, and, apart from important developments in radio location (which will have a direct bearing on television when military security allows), little progress has been made in Great Britain in broadcast television. In other countries — principally the United States, possibly France—research and investigation have not been brought to such a standstill: it is doubtful whether first place in a science in which she once led the world is still held by Great Britain. The committee advised strongly that the London service should be reinstated as soon as possible, and should not be deferred for the uncertain period needed to give an opportunity of incorporating any fundamental improvement in the system. Furthermore extension of television to the more populous provincial centres should be made as soon as possible after the opening of the service in London. The issue, the committee stated, was not merely of providing entertainment for a limited number of persons, or even of laying the foundation of a national service, but of building an important new industry in the manufacture of television apparatus into what could be a valuable export trade.

Difficulties are many ; the committee’s recommendations could not have been made easily. Before the war the quality of picture given by the television receiver was a standard of 405 lines. This gave (according to the official report ; opinions of similar services overseas are varied) a satisfactory picture (size 8 in. by 10 in.) in the home, but one which was not adequate for the large cinema screen which needs (to equal the clarity and detail of cinema films) a definition of about 1,000 lines. Increasing the size of the screen and of the picture merely spaces the lines farther apart, making the image coarser-grained, and reducing detail. Greater clarity, greater detail, and a larger picture —which can be seen comfortably by more than about three persons are obtained only by increasing the number of lines. Present Limitations With even the small screen, television, because of its lack of definition, must rely heavily on close-ups. It can show you a figure, but not much of the background ; in a group the individual becomes nearly indistinguishable. This limitation seriously restricts television’s entertainment value; transmission of sports, for instance at present has to be confined as far as possible to close-ups of single figures, such as the batsman at the wicket or the man with the football, with as many as possible “ long ” shots to give a general impression of the game as a whole and the relationship among players. All programmes (presentation of plays, for instance) involving more than one or perhaps two persons are — with 405 line definition course, similarly affected. Only by adoption of higher line definition can this limitation be overcome completely. Eventually, the Television Committee reported, television transmission should be of a standard of 1,000 lines. The questionperhaps the most important affecting the future of the industry — be decided is whether the 405-line slate should be wiped clean now and a higher line standard adopted, or whether the change should be delayed. Reasons for its recommendation — advising the resumption of the pre-war

system of television as soon as possible were given by the committee as follows : — (a) Transmissions, which were of “a high degree of reliability and afforded consistently good entertainment value in the home ” by 1939, could be expected to be even more efficient ; the receivers of better design and qualitywithout any basic change. (b) Much research, as well as new buildings and studios, would be needed before a markedly 1 improved service could be operated. Such a lapse of time (probably several years) with no television service would dampen interest and—more important —seriously retard commercial development in Great Britain. (c) An immediate re-establishment of a television service would stop the loss of highly specialized staffs previously employed in the industry before they began work for the war effort. Work could be given, too, to the men and women who during the war have gained valuable experience in different types of radio research. (d) Further research and experience with the 405-line system would give those in control more chance to lessen the problems—both technical and programme—which will inevitably arise with the introduction of a new and improved system. (e) It is most important that there should be no avoidable delay in restarting a service if Great Britain is to hold a leading position in the television field. Equipment may be Outmoded Disadvantages of continuing with the old system are that customers will be asked to buy equipment which before many years will almost certainly be obsolete. If the change was made now, present receivers would have to be scrapped (much transmission equipment, too) ; but later the cost to the public and the television authorities would be immeasurably greater —it has even been suggested in the United States that a later change might go by default, for fear of jeopardizing too large a public investment. To overcome this potential waste, the Television Committee suggested that when the time comes it may be possible to make two transmissions of the same

programme— one for old-time receivers, the other for the new. But when a similar suggestion was made in the United States, experts replied that the new line definition would introduce programme technique that could not be received by the outmoded apparatus. "While the Television Committee of Great Britain considered the advisability of standardizing British television with the definition (525-line) used in the United States since 1941, interested organizations in the United States were hotly arguing about retention of the present system or a change to either 735-line standard or a 000-line standard. They are still arguing. Reasons for the controversy are more complex than in Great Britain. Crowded Spectrum The line standard is determined by the region in the radio spectrum to which television is assigned. The present assigned region lies between 50 and 300 megacycles. With all the services now in operation this region is already overcrowded— to which is the almost immediate prospect of having to reserve greater space in radio services to aviation and navigation (among other things) Television broadcasters are restricted to channels 6 megacycles wide. In such channels a 525-line picture is the maximum, but the upper reaches of the spectrum are as yet untenanted ; there is space for no one knows how many services. Here, it has been proposed, television could be allocated some 30-odd channels, each 16 megacycles wide, in the region between 500 and 1,000 megacycles, giving wider bands for better pictures and more bands for competition. This change and the resultant technical differences would entirely outmode present television equipment receivers and transmitters— the United States an investment estimated at about $22,000,000 by both public and manu-

facturers. But, the exponents of the plan say (a company interested only in the programme side of television, not the manufacturing of equipment), it is wiser to scrap this pre-war investment rather than let it grow in time to perhaps $250,000,000. The objections (from the groups concerned with the manufacturing, not the programme side of television) have been no less vigorously put forward than the plan. Experts from the groups went to France, where it had been reported that French television, developed during the German occupation, with a 1,015-line definition, was a marked improvement on pre-war services from either Great Britain or the United States. The reports from these experts varied : 1,015-line high-frequency television, it was found, was (a) as yet not practicable ; (&) perhaps feasible ; (c) completely out of the laboratory stage, working perfectly, ready for commercial development. It seemed it all depended which stable they came from. Sooner or later the Federal Communications Commission will have to clear the air and decide the definition standard. Methods of Financing Finance, too, necessarily must take an important place in the future of post-war television. The British Television Committee in its report stated that arrangements for financing the television service must depend on the methods chosen to finance the 8.8.C.’s sound broadcasting services after the war. The aim should be to make television self-supporting as soon as possible, although that would clearly not be possible in the early stages of development. Television licenses of £1 a year, and cinema television licenses (the amount of the fee and the date of its introduction to be decided later), were suggested. No recommendation was made about sponsored programmes. For financial support television in the United States will have to rely heavily

on its advertisers. And television’s inability to transmit detail is a serious drawback from the advertiser’s point of view. A dress designer, for instance, cannot show the subtleties of cut, cloth, and colour ; a furniture-manufacturer has difficulty showing the difference between his products and those of the opposition. To compare it with other media, the best that television can do to-day with its small image is the equivalent of a 45-to-48-line half-tone block ; when the picture is enlarged to 18 in. by 24 in. it is no better than a 24-line half-tone. Any newspaper can print half-tones of 65 to 85 lines. And television’s present rudimentary colour processes allow a picture of no more than about 35 lines, while a magazine with good paper has no trouble reproducing colour photographs of 125 lines. To attract advertisers, television authorities in the United States so far have charged small rates and sometimes nothing at all. Faithful colour television with detailed reproduction will come only with higher line definition ; and until that standard is adopted television is not likely to be given the financial support from advertisers so indispensable to its success. Future Programmes But, in spite of all these difficulties, the question seems to be not whether there will be television, but what programmes will be televised. All the cheapness and ease of production which is the advantage of present-day radio fly out of the window when television is introduced. All the crowd scenes, the shipwrecks, the train smashes, the earthquakes, and the fires of the radio play, with television have to be more than imagination stimulated by the dialogue ; they have to be

seen. At once the question of expense rises. When it is remembered the huge amounts of money spent by Hollywood on even the poorest-grade films it is obvious that television could not afford to spend similar amounts for perhaps an hour’s entertainment. Drama, grand opera, musical comedy would need elaborate stage settings, expensive costumes, careful lighting, trained orchestras and perhaps weeks of rehearsals all to produce a programme that can be repeated once or twice at the most. Nor is the showing of films likely to help solve the problem. Here again the question of finance rises. Immense profits from films are made because only a limited number of people can see them at a sitting. No person will go to a theatre to see a film he has already seen on his television receiver—and it will be possible for a whole country to see the latest film success (costing perhaps to make) with just one television showing. Where would the film producers’ profits come from ? Programmes, it seems, will not be able to advance far beyond the dual or solo turns, the comedians, the tap dancers, and the singers ; the politician making a speech ; the personalities in the news ; sports events ; and some news shots. These are simple to televise. But their entertainment value is limited, and, unless programme matter can be extended, it is difficult to know what will happen when the novelty has worn off. As other problems have been solved by science, so, no doubt, will the problems of television be solved sooner or later, Then, but not until then, a new art form will have been established.